I haven't done this in a while, since 2013 in fact. Continuing to predict what would befall us under the reign of our last Temp Agency President was just too depressing. Fear not! Predictions have boldly returned!

In 2018 I predict:

* Al Franken will resign on January 2nd. (Actually, this is my least reliable prediction, since it's based on the word of a liberal Democrat!)

* The economy will continue to boom. There will be at least three new all time highs for the Dow in the first quarter, and possibly a record number of all time highs for a calendar year.

* Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi will alternately try to tell you that the economy is Armageddon or that Trump wasn't responsible for its success, it was all Obama!

* People will start to see more take home pay in February. Schumer and Pelosi will cite mass hallucinations.

* Kim Jong-un will continue to fire missiles periodically, but not actually target anyone or anything that would require a military response.

* Good news! Super Bowl ads will be more affordable this year!

* Bad news: Fewer people will be watching

* Last place Cleveland Browns will receive a first round draft choice in the NFL

* Highly rated college quarterbacks may seek asylum in Venezuela.

* The Russian Collusion investigation will finally fizzle out without any indictments concerning the campaign, since the only definite connection they can find between "Russia" and "Trump" is that both are in the dictionary. Merriam Webster is expected to cop a plea.

* At least one section of The Wall will be built

* In the midterm elections, Democrats have more vulnerable seats than Republicans. Historically, the party out of power picks up seats in the midterms. They will retain many, but four to seven months of higher pay and a continually improving economy will have voters voting their pocketbooks and doom any dream of Democrats regaining a majority in the House. Dems will lose seats despite celebrities, big money, out-of-state infusions of cash.

* That viral video of an apparently sick and dying polar bear will continue to be circulated as "evidence" of global warming. It is not.

* Al Gore will adopt a polar bear

* The polar bear will sue for emancipation.

* The Justice Department will reopen an investigation into Hillary Clinton's various and sundry crimes. Even with a preponderance of unshredded evidence and still breathing witnesses, the political downside will be such as to cause the investigation to lapse without prosecution. (BTW, nothing would make me happier than to be proven wrong here.)

* In an attempt to regain relevance, alleged comedienne Kathy Griffin will announce that she has evidence of crimes committed by Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation.

* Kathy Griffin's severed head will be discovered in Fort Marcy Park. Next to her suicide note.

* The MSM will continue to ignore the booming economy, the military victories in Iraq and Syria, and continue to focus on Trump's possible belief in UFOs**, Sarah Sanders' pie making abilities and whether or not Jim Acosta gets to asks his nattering questions on live TV.

* Donald Trump will Tweet stuff that makes people mad. Sad!

And finally,

* Liberal trolls will still be clueless.

Please feel free to disagree or offer predictions of your own in the comments. We'll check back next December to tally the scorecard and remind you all just how right I was!

Happy New Year!

**Based solely on reports of expenditures authorized by Harry Reid during the Obama administration. No, seriously!

Standard English is the lingua franca of American and world commerce. There should be no stigma to any patois spoken in the home or on the street, but if standard English is not a requirement of the public education system, it robs the students of their economic potential.

Third, you should not bother to tell us how you feel about a topic. Tell us what you think about it. If you can't think yet, that's O.K.. Tell us what Aristotle thinks, or Hammurabi thinks, or H.L.A. Hart thinks. Borrow opinions from those whose opinions are worth considering. As Aristotle teaches us in the reading for today, men and women who are enslaved to the passions, who never rise above their animal natures by practicing the virtues, do not have worthwhile opinions.

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."

-Stephen Hawking

Believe me when I tell you that there are few greater pleasures in this world than waking up and realizing you are smarter than Stephen Hawking!

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing." For a supposedly smart man, he sure can say stupid things! Sorry, Stephen, but your thinking has jumped either a few steps or the shark here!

Let us consider for the moment, the "law" of gravity. According to Wiki:

Every point mass attracts every single other point mass by a force pointing along the line intersecting both points. The force is proportional to the product of the two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

The force of gravity is a form of energy, which my old astronomy prof used to call "The Glue of the U". The law is not an edict such as "Let there be light", but describes the immutable relationship of mass to this force. With me so far? Good. We'll go over some of the math, but if your eyes start to glaze over, please feel free to jump ahead. Hawking did.

The equation, nicely illustrated again by Wiki shows

where:

F is the force between the masses;
G is the gravitational constant (6.674×10−11 N · (m/kg)2);
m1 is the first mass;
m2 is the second mass;
r is the distance between the centers of the masses.

Note where it says: "F is the force between the masses". In order for there to be a force between the masses, there must first exist...two masses. Fairly simple, nicht wahr? So, according to the Hawking theory of spontaneous creation, there was a force attracting the matter that did not exist yet which created the matter. Or there was matter that did not exist yet exerting the force!

That presupposes that matter predated the creation of the universe. Or energy which became matter, or both.

Hawkings theory of spontaneous creation must be based on the idea that either matter or energy or both are eternal. And if they are eternal, that is not an explanation of how they came into being. This is nothing more than a cosmological sleight of hand: the matter in the universe that did not exist created the matter in the universe.

In other words, the universe can create itself out of nothing because of the way Hawking defines "nothing". Except if matter and energy are eternal, then the universe didn't create itself out of nothing, but combined that which is eternal in a new and different way. Or is it just the law of gravity that is eternal? But, gravity is the force that exerts itself between two or more bodies of mass...so if gravity is eternal, then matter must also be eternal, else there could be no attraction? And can you have force without energy?

Hawking's argument reminds me of an argument from "The Naked Ape". It identified a certain era in time and stated the during this age, man's tree dwelling, ape-like creature ancestors climbed out of the trees and began walking on two legs. This must have happened in this exact way, he explained, because...here we are!

Hawking says the universe created itself out of nothing, using matter and energy that are eternal, without giving us the origin of either matter or energy, without the Hand of a Creator God, because this must have happened in this exact way, because...here we are!

Color me unconvinced.

Consider the practical application: a man falls from a twenty story window. As gravity pulls him to the earth, and to a lesser degree, the man pulls the earth towards him, almost miraculously, a spongy, marshmallow like substance forms between them and cushions his fall! What? Not buying it?? You mean gravity doesn't create matter?? Huh! (Although it might create a certain red stain at the base of the building! Just sayin'!)

Consider the "Big Bang Theory" (the cosmology, not the sitcom that jumped the shark several years ago). Again, according to that modern oracle of Delphi, Wiki:

"The model describes how the universe expanded from a very high density and high temperature state."

My understanding of the theory is that gravity attracted this vast cloud of matter in the universe (again presuming that both matter and energy are eternal), into a very dense compressed space, and when the energy of all those atoms compressing against themselves (think Al Franken in a crowded elevator) became too great, there was an explosion (scientific term: "Bang") that dispersed the matter throughout the universe, where it became planets, trees, monkeys and Stephen Hawking.

Or, in the words of that ancient cosmologist, Genie:

Phenomenal cosmic powers! Itty bitty living space!

I have an alternate to the Big Bang. Imagine if you will, an empty lot in your fair city. Above the lot, swirl the atoms of concrete, steel, aluminum, copper and Chinese made retail merchandise. One day, the pressure of all these elements becomes so great that BANG! a Wal-Mart appears! (I call this the "Big Box Theory). This must have happened in this exact way, because...here it is!!

An alternate scenario?

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

or

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

- Hamlet

If you wish to ponder or dispute the eternal nature of almighty God, then please feel free! Although note that the discussion you have wandered into is theological, not cosmological. To state that the universe created itself out of nothing (and peculiarly used the word "will", which implies purpose), by utilizing the elements of the universe that predated its creation, is Harfian** in its error and its simplicity.

**Harfian: after Marie Harf, who recently credited the Trump administration's victories over ISIS to "a strategy that was laid out during the Obama administration", even though, during her tenure with that same administration, she stated that terrorism was caused by the lack of jobs. Bless her Harf!

Editor's note: The genesis of this post (Genesis? I crack myself up!) was a lengthy comment I made on a similar post at my friend Curmudgeon's Political Clown Parade.

Second, you have been taught to resort to two moral values above all others, diversity and equality. These are important values if properly understood. But the way most of you have been taught to understand them makes you irrational, unreasoning. For you have been taught that we must have as much diversity as possible and that equality means that everyone must be made equal. But equal simply means the same. To say that 2+2 equals 4 is to say that 2+2 is numerically the same as four. And diversity simply means difference. So when you say that we should have diversity and equality you are saying we should have difference and sameness. That is incoherent, by itself. Two things cannot be different and the same at the same time in the same way...

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sp4c. Baca, Company D, distinguished himself while serving on a recoilless rifle team during a night ambush mission A platoon from his company was sent to investigate the detonation of an automatic ambush device forward of his unit's main position and soon came under intense enemy fire from concealed positions along the trail.

Hearing the heavy firing from the platoon position and realizing that his recoilless rifle team could assist the members of the besieged patrol, Sp4c. Baca led his team through the hail of enemy fire to a firing position within the patrol's defensive perimeter. As they prepared to engage the enemy, a fragmentation grenade was thrown into the midst of the patrol. Fully aware of the danger to his comrades, Sp4c. Baca unhesitatingly, and with complete disregard for his own safety, covered the grenade with his steel helmet and fell on it as the grenade exploded, thereby absorbing the lethal fragments and concussion with his body. His gallant action and total disregard for his personal well-being directly saved 8 men from certain serious injury or death.

The extraordinary courage and selflessness displayed by Sp4c. Baca, at the risk of his life, are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

There are seventy five living MoH recipients today. Their names and their stories should not be forgotten. My mission is to honor one of those heroes here each week, and salute them for their courage and sacrifice. In the words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy:

“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honors; the men it remembers.”

Reasoning requires you to understand truth claims, even truth claims that you think are false or bad or just icky. Most of you have been taught to label things with various "isms" which prevent you from understanding claims you find uncomfortable or difficult.

Reasoning requires correct judgment. Judgment involves making distinctions, discriminating. Most of you have been taught how to avoid critical, evaluative judgments by appealing to simplistic terms such as "diversity" and "equality..."

One of the falsehoods that has been stuffed into your brain and pounded into place is that moral knowledge progresses inevitably, such that later generations are morally and intellectually superior to earlier generations, and that the older the source the more morally suspect that source is. There is a term for that. It is called chronological snobbery. Or, to use a term that you might understand more easily, "ageism."

I saw this story before Christmas, and didn't want to harsh your holiday mellow. Especially if you were flying to or from a family gathering, I didn't want you looking at the person in the seat next to you, wondering if he was an escaped psychopathic murderer.

A man prosecutors said fits “all the criteria of a classic serial killer” escaped from a Hawaii psychiatric hospital to prove he isn’t “the bad” guy...
...Saito, who was committed to the mental hospital in Oahu more than 30 years ago, walked out of the facility on Sunday and hopped in a cab. The 59-year-old escapee was able to make his way through airport security with a fake ID and boarded a plane to San Jose...

So, an individual police describe as a "homicidal psychopath” leaves a mental hospital, takes a cab to the airport and hops on a plane to the mainland? Easy peasy! Clothing? Cash?? Fake ID??? I'm guessing he got on with no luggage...I thought one way tickets of males, without luggage was supposed to set off all kinds of bells of suspicious activity? No? Did he pay cash? That would be another red flag. Surely unemployed and hospitalized, he din't have a wallet full of credit cards? Whatever!
"Right this way, Mr. Saito! Peanuts or pretzels?"

In 1981, authorities committed Saito to the hospital following the gruesome (1979) murder of 29-year-old Sandra Yamashiro, who prosecutors said Saito shot and stabbed numerous times before leaving her body at Ala Moana Center in Honolulu.

How does a mental patient, a homicidal psychopath "walk out" of a mental hospital in the first place, obtain a fake ID, cash or credit card, take a cab to the airport, waltz through security and take a 2,400 mile flight? Where was Steve McGarrett?? Book 'em, Dano!

Tip of the day: Be nice to the guy next to you on the airplane, fighting over the armrest or behind you, kicking your seat. You just never know!

I first heard this song when the 45 single was delivered to the college radio station where I was working.

From Shawn's website: "The Christmas Song was written in a hotel room in Rome, in 1969. I can't remember what I was in Rome for, but it was close to Christmas, and I started thinking about that, and all that entailed, and I wanted to tell the story somewhat differently, and make it fun. A few months later, when we were recording Second Contribution, I played the song for Jonathan Weston, and he didn't want to waste any of the studio time we had. I was determined to get it on tape. So when he and the engineer Robin Cable went out for a dinner break, I got on the phone, and gathered together 19 musicians, and I had everyone of them set up with microphones, and had the levels set, we'd rehearsed it several times, and we were sitting in the studio, and then Jonathan, and Robin walked into the control room. I just told Robin to roll the tape. It was done in the first take."

On the recording, there's a bit of a false start. Shawn gives an infectious, joyous laugh and says "I think that's tremendous" and then launches into the song. I think I love that laughter as much as I love the song.

I posted the song in 2010. I wasn't going to post it again, but then I got an Anonymous comment on that 2010 post that made me change my mind. Let me share it with you...

I have been trying to figure out who did this song and what it was called. Thanks a million. I would also like to find the version with the false start, but I can't find the title "A Christmas Song" on Itunes, but I'm willing to sample each song to find it! I had googled "I think that's tremendous" before, but since it wasn't that unique a sentence, I got nowhere. Even adding christmas music to the search came up dry, and I eventually stopped trying. But I was looking for something else, thought I'd give it another try, and here you are. Thanks a million more times.

I can identify with that. I can think of things that I searched and searched for and pretty much given up hope of ever finding. And then, for some reason, a spark of hope wells up within you and tells you you've got nothing to lose by looking one more time, and...there it is.

"I think that's tremendous". I do, too. More now than ever. I don't always comment on the videos I post, but I did on this one, seven years ago, and mentioned the very words that weren't in the video I posted then, the only ones our friend here knew to search for. What is it the Good Book says? Seek and ye shall find"?

I don't know what you're looking for this Christmas, but maybe it's too soon to give up looking for it now. You just never know!

I'd hesitate to call Darrell Issa a "turncoat". Issa is a conservative and generally a good guy. There is a practice on both sides of the aisle of letting individuals deviate from the party line vote, so long as their vote isn't critical for passage. If the measure can pass without their votes, a limited number of Congresscritters are allowed to "vote their conscience" if a vote has to potential to affect their re-election.

Issa is one of a handful of Republicans in public office in California. The cap on mortgage deductions is not popular there. Democrats are lining up to run against him. Voting for the measure, when his vote was not required for passage, will mean one less cudgel for the opposition to use against him.

For information about purchasing his completed art or commissioning new projects, contact him at

john555cox @ hotmail.com. (No spaces)

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